


Poem #221

by DesdemonaKaylose



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alien Culture, Other, Poetry, i'm just mainlining world building straight into my brain stem, the voice of tarn, this is literally a fake article about a fake poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-31 07:38:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18586747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesdemonaKaylose/pseuds/DesdemonaKaylose
Summary: It's 2039 on post-unicron Earth. Somebody tells you Megatron, the guy who crushed multiple buildings on live tv, used to publish poetry. You immediately whip out your phone and click the first Wiki article that pops up when you google "megatron poet love poem?"ie. I take a break from writing my thesis in order to write a fake article about the Voice of Tarn





	1. #221

>>Access Archive

 

 **Poem #221** , colloquially known as “The Conjunx of Tarn”

by The Voice of Tarn

 

Beloved,  
When the great masters forged the word _beloved_ from their pens  
For their obedient worship, they were called “goldsmith”.

Beloved,  
Do not call it humility when your spark gutters from my reach;  
All raw matter is right to fear the anvil of the blacksmith.

 

Beloved,  
Though starvation dims your shattered optics, beneath the floating freeways  
In that sunless deep, your twin starlight will guide ships.

Beloved,  
Even fierce love is love. A comet burns itself against the atmosphere;  
Scylla, the black hole, is a mouth hungry with love for ships.

 

Beloved,  
Patria, homeworld--not my beloved, but theirs--  
The grand and glorious goldsmiths ring her digits in golden bands.

Beloved,  
Coal dust and pitted paint are my courting gifts to you  
Come lay your helm against my thigh, and at my pede: your bonds.

 

**Context**

* * *

 

This form, known as the Cybertronian [Ghazal](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ghazal), is traditionally employed as a form of patriot poem. The proto-form of the traditional ghazal was a specific sort of devotion poem made popular during the 13 Primes era, by Solus Prime’s lieutenant, Ursa Major. Ursa Major produced a swath of such proto-ghazal dedicated to his liege which were so well taken by his contemporaries that within a century they were considered classics of the genre. The chiasmus structure dates back to this period, as does the repetition and alteration of a concept at the end of each paired couplet.

After the Warring Primes period, the ghazal was rediscovered and repurposed for post-global-unification nationalism. Several poet laureates took stabs at the form to overall positive reception. At this point, several of the ghazal‘s more complicated structural features were standardized. The poets of this era were indeed often referred to as goldsmiths, although mostly by one another.

In the standard ghazal, the speaker addresses his homeworld--or, “Patria”--as if he were a suitor courting her favor (the Patria is always addressed in the feminine, a construction vanishingly rare in neo cybex). There has been some controversy on whether the subject of courting, even as analogy, is a subject fit for poetic discussion. More staunch conservatives considered even the figurative allusion to conjunx ritus to be a crude subject matter best left to soldiers, laborers, and decadents. Sentinel Prime famously remarked of the whole invention: “There is absolutely no call for any so-called poet to discomfit the rest of the population with their erotic nonsense under the thin veil of patriotism.”

This ghazal is remarkable in that it deliberately strips back the layers of structural complexity implemented since the revival of the ghazal form. It has been suggested before by a certain academic at the Nova Point Conservatory that the form might most accurately be referred to as a neo-proto-ghazal, despite the fact that this name is unbearably pretentious, and no one cared about Nova Point even when it was still standing. The poet, obviously, is not available for comment.

 

**Designation**

* * *

 

While writing as the Voice of Tarn, Megatron only rarely designated his poems with titles. Despite this, many of his more popular works have been nicknamed for ease of reference by critics and fans alike. Voice of Tarn poem #221, colloquially known as “The Conjunx of Tarn”, was notable enough to earn the nickname almost immediately after its dissemination. It is one of the few romantic endeavors ever attempted under this pseudonym, although it cannot, strictly speaking, be called a love poem. Poem #17, or ["The Gladiator's Conjunx"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18586747/chapters/44063395) is more explicitly about the subject of love, although arguably less sincere. Appropriately enough, it is attested that Megatron once remarked to an unlucky would-be suitor during a rally: "There is only enough room in my berth for myself and the Cybertronian race, which thankfully does not kick in its sleep."

 

**Controversies**

* * *

 

In certain academic circles, the final couplet of the poem was subjected to immediate scrutiny. Some critics have derided the word choice of the [radif ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radif)as a cheap bid to mash an unwieldy concept into the proscribed form; other critics have received it more warmly as an allusion to the same long gone era that the stripped down proto-ghazal structure itself suggests. It may not be obvious to the casual reader, but the Old Cybertronian terms for “bond” and “band” are identical--only linguistic drift has lead them to be separated at present.

An additional and greater controversy lies in the explicit rejection of the “Patria”. Who, then, is the subject of the poem? The subject is imagined in the “depths” below the freeways, an allusion perhaps to the underground neighborhoods known collectively as “The Shades” in Iacon, or perhaps more generally to the alleyways of most major cities. If the subject of the devotion poem is not the homeworld itself, then is it a single mech, or another personification in conflict with the Patria? The most common interpretation of this poem is that it intends to glorify the unseen denizens who walk Cybertron’s underworld--or, as one vocal contemporary critic put it, “the planet’s unwashed legion of leakers, skivs, and addicts”.

Poem #221 is now generally agreed to be one of the Megatron's recruitment poems, as are most poems from #75 and upward.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [real life ghazals](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ghazal)


	2. Poem #17

**Poem #17** , colloquially known as "The Gladiator's Conjunx"

by  **The Voice of Tarn**

 

I did not lose my spark to a lover’s evening

when starlight washed the gardens silver-dark,

when claws were flashing and steel was slicing,

in sand and smoke and oil, I lost my spark. 

 

I lost it to a killer and a foe mech

a wretch who did not kill me, but he tried,

who took the blade and took it striking

and laughed, and kissed his hand to me, and died.

 

 

**Reception**

* * *

"The Gladiator's Conjunx", as it was known among its initial audience, was one of the earlier works by the Voice of Tarn to be recognized at a global level. Undoubtedly the brutal imagery turned some heads; at the time when it was released, the Primal Pastoral style had reigned for several cycles as the most popular poetic form, and the tide of public interest was inevitably turning away from such peaceful contemplation. The earlier works of the Voice of Tarn had gathered something of a cult following, but it was not until well after the publication of #84, ["Will You Ask to Live", ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13272438/chapters/30368415)that #17 entered the larger cultural consciousness.

The work was popularized after one of the era's more risqué poets, Tabula, made reference to it in his collection, citing it as the mirror to "Sand/Smoke/Oil". This poem, purporting to be from the perspective of the love-struck foe mech, describes the chivalrous longing of the soon-to-be dead, as he pines for the more senior gladiator whom he has only glimpsed through the arena doors. Upon mass publication, Tabula deliberately layered the downloadable file of his own poem with a copy of #17, so that the irony of the hopeful speaker would be apparent to the reader as they processed it. Tabula's tone is much more intimately charged, and critics have observed that the two do not entirely mesh when taken as a unit.

 

**Speculation**

* * *

It has long been a matter of debate whether the foe mech in question ever properly existed, or whether his existence was only a literary prop. At the time of its circulation, the poem's author was thoroughly anonymous, and there were many who publicly scoffed at the idea that anyone who engaged in such a barbarous livelihood would be capable of composing something so elegant. As it is now common knowledge that Megatron was the pen behind the Voice of Tarn, speculation has taken on a newly biographical tone. Unfortunately, the description in question is too vague to pinpoint as any single encounter even if complete records of all Megatron's official bouts had survived the great war. A great many combatants were extinguished by Megatron during his career, especially first time competitors, who did not have the security of patronage to assure their survival after a defeat.

Although Megatron was asked about the poem on more than one occasion, both on and off the record, by all accounts he refused to give any answer. His refusal to shed any light on the subject is taken by some to mean that the matter is more personal than he preferred to be known. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a direct adaptation of an AE Housman poem. Let me [cite my source](https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/i-did-not-lose-my-heart-summers-even).


End file.
